The present application refers to Japanese Patent Application No. 11-272792 filed on Sep. 27, 1999, Japanese Patent Application No. 11-282004 filed on Oct. 1, 1999, Japanese Patent Application No. 11-304281 filed on Oct. 26, 1999, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-269180 filed on Sep. 5, 2000, which are the basics of the present application, and benefits from the basic patent applications.
Field of the Invention and Description of the Related Art
The present invention relates to a medical apparatus supporting system for providing a maintenance service for medical equipment.
In recent years, microcomputers have been used to drive and control medical equipment. When a program installed in the microcomputer and described how to drive and control medical equipment contains a bug or when the program must be updated through modification or extension, a maintenance serviceperson visits a site in which the medical equipment is installed. The serviceperson dismounts a printed-circuit board realizing the microcomputer having the program installed therein, and brings it with her/his back to a predetermined maintenance service center. Otherwise, the serviceperson updates the program using a reprogramming apparatus at the site in which the printed-circuit board is dismounted.
However, it is time-consuming and skilled labor to dismount a printed-circuit board concerned from medical equipment or a ROM included in a microcomputer and used to storea program. Under the circumstances, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-179986 has proposed a method of writing a new program, or rewriting or updating the program without the necessity of dismounting the microcomputer or ROM.
Moreover, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-132121 has proposed a method of displaying information on a centralized display panel to report the information to a surgeon or an operator of medical equipment. Specifically, according to the method, when a plurality of pieces of medical equipment is used to extend medical conducts, information indicating that each piece of medical equipment has been driven under preset conditions is displayed on the concentrated display panel. Moreover, assume that certain medical equipment has been driven to enter a state different from a preset driven state, or more particularly, medical equipment fails or acts under conditions different from preset conditions. In this case, an error indication meaning that an abnormality has occurred in the medical equipment is displayed in an area on the display panel allocated to the medical equipment. Thus, the state of medical equipment is reported to a surgeon or an operator of medical equipment.
The Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-179986 has proposed a method of writing, rewriting, or updating a program stored in a ROM included in a microcomputer even after the microcomputer or ROM is mounted on a printed-circuit board included in medical equipment or any other electronic equipment. However, for writing, rewriting, or updating the program stored in the ROM included in the microcomputer, a maintenance serviceperson has to visit the installation site of the medical equipment. The owner of the medical equipment cannot use the medical equipment until the serviceperson completes writing, rewriting, or updating the program. It takes too much time until the medical equipment becomes reusable.
Moreover, according to the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-132121, if certain medical equipment included in a surgical system composed of a plurality of pieces of medical equipment malfunctions, an error indication is displayed on the display area on the display panel allocated to the medical equipment. Thus, it is reported to a surgeon or an operator of medical equipment that the medical equipment has malfunctioned. However, although the malfunctioning medical equipment may be specified, it is impossible to discover the contents of the malfunction and locate a defective component of the medical equipment causing the malfunction. For this reason, a maintenance serviceperson must visit the installation site of the medical equipment to locate the defective component thereof causing the malfunction and repair the defective component. The user of the medical equipment cannot therefore use the medical equipment for a long period of time from the occurrence of the malfunction to the resolution thereof.
An object of the present invention is to provide a medical apparatus supporting system making it possible to rewrite or update a program stored in a storage device such as a ROM, in which a program for instructing a microcomputer included in medical equipment how to operate is stored, by extending remote control over a communication line.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a medical apparatus supporting system for, when medical equipment malfunctions, reporting malfunction information to a user of the medical equipment by displaying the malfunction information, and transmitting the malfunction information to a maintenance service provider over a communication line so that a maintenance service can be provided immediately.
A medical apparatus supporting system consists mainly of a plurality of pieces of medical equipment, a reprogrammable storage device, a reprogramming control unit, and a computer. The plurality of pieces of medical equipment has a communication facility. The reprogrammable storage device is included in each of the plurality of pieces of medical equipment. A program used to drive and control each piece of medical equipment is stored in the storage device. The reprogramming control unit reprograms the storage device. The computer has a communication facility for communicating data over an information communication line, and transmits a rewriting/updating program with which a program stored in the storage device is rewritten or updated.
The rewriting/updating program with which the program stored in the storage device included in each piece of medical equipment is rewritten or updated is transmitted to each piece of medical equipment over the information transmission line under control of the computer. The reprogramming control unit rewrites or updates the program stored in the storage device using the received rewriting/updating program. Thus, the program can be rewritten or updated remotely using the computer located away from the pieces of medical equipment.